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RIP
Doug Fieger, 57, Lead singer of The Knack dies
Lead singer of The Knack dies | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/14/2010
WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. - Doug Fieger, 57, leader of the power pop band The Knack, died today. He sang on the band's 1979 hit "My Sharona."
Fieger, a Detroit-area native, died at his home in Woodland Hills near Los Angeles after battling cancer, according to The Knack's manager, Jake Hooker.
Fieger formed The Knack in Los Angeles in 1978, and the group quickly became a staple of Sunset Strip rock clubs. A year later he co-wrote and sang lead vocals on "My Sharona."
Fieger said the song, with its pounding drums and exuberant vocals, was inspired by a girlfriend of four years.
"I had never met a girl like her - ever," he said in a 1994 interview. "She induced madness. She was a very powerful presence. She had an insouciance that wouldn't quit. She was very self-assured. ... She also had an overpowering scent, and it drove me crazy."
"My Sharona," an unapologetically anthemic rock song, held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard pop chart for six weeks, becoming an FM radio standard.
It became a pop culture phenomenon, parodied by Weird Al Yankovic and others and sampled by rap group Run DMC.
In 1994, "My Sharona" re-entered the Billboard chart when it was released as a single from the soundtrack of the Ben Stiller film Reality Bites.
"My Sharona" gained attention again in 2005 when it was reported that George W. Bush had the song on the presidential iPod.
Their songs, about young love and teenage lust, included the hits "Good Girls Don't," "She's So Selfish" and "Frustrated."
The Knack continued to release albums and tour through the mid-2000s but the band never replicated the success of its first two albums, Get the Knack and ... But the Little Girls Understand.
Fieger battled cancer for six years. In 2006 he underwent surgery to remove two tumors from his brain.
He is survived by a sister, Beth Falkenstein, and a brother, attorney Geoffrey Fieger of Southfield, Mich., who is best known for representing assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian.
A Los Angeles memorial service for friends and family is being planned.
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Remember them well. I never knew he was Geoff Fieger's brother.
RIP
He's Geoff Fieger's brother???
RIP Doug
I have to say I hated that song then and I hate it now. I prefer to call it 'My Scrotum'.
'Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.' Ben Franklin
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." --Sinclair Lewis
Boy this one really hurts....I've lost three musician friends in the past four months, all before the age of 60 and all from natural causes. I know that the rock n roll lifestyle can shorten your years, but this is getting a bit frightening. Aw DAMN Dougie....he was such a sweet affable guy and talented as all getout... I'm so glad to've had the privilage of knowing him.
Maxey, how did you know him? I loved The Knack--wow, I'm getting old. R.I.P.Originally Posted by maxeythecat
Oh, m-m-m-m-m-m-m-My (Sharona).
RIP.
"My Sharona" was supposed to be the song playing when Cyrus gets violated by the white-supremacist S&M guys in "Pulp Fiction". Except that the guys from the Knack got wind of the scene that Tarantino wanted to use it for, and refused permission.
I love "Good Girls Don't". Kind of racy song...
That's weird. They probably would have gotten some decent money for that. LOVE Pulp Fiction. One of my all time favorites.
RIP. I loved the song. What an awful way to go. Cancer sucks.
Yeah. It seems like he fought it like hell though. I hope he was able to have some extra decent times during that fight and that he had a decent quality of life as well. R.I.P.
The LA music scene during the late 70s early 80s was a pretty tight-knit bunch...everybody knew or was aquainted with one another and really gave each other support. Pete Townshend once described the NYC scene during the 60s as a small town where one circle of friends knew someone from another circle who knew somebody else from yet another and how they would all intersect in the middle ....well, LA was just like that. The really cool thing was it didn't matter whether your band had the #1 single on the charts or if you were playing some dive for beer money, we all hung out and boy....we had fun!
I met Doug thru many different run-ins at many different clubs, after parties and thru a guy named Brandon Matheson...he and Doug'd played in The Sunset Bombers together, so when Brandon joined in a band called the Rubber City Rebels, Doug stepped in as producer when they were signed to Capitol. As said, he was a pretty affable guy, but he was human....amidst all the hoopla of The Knack, he went thru a bit of a drinking spell, imbibing a little more than was good for him to deal with the pressure. I remember a conversation that I had with him round this time....the Rubber City Rebels were playing at Flippers (Flippers Roller Boogie Palace run by a crazy Englishman nicknamed "Flipper" due to a foot injury from a car crash) and we were sitting on the sidelines talking about the state of inebriation everyone was in that night (us included mind you) I commented that he did'nt look drunk to me. " I am though," he replied, "that's cos I can drink and drink and never really get drunk....it's kind of a twilight state. You walk around and no matter how much you drink you never seem to get drunk, but at the same time, you're never really sober either when you stop." He also never got hangovers no matter how much alcohol he consumed, and he said that was always a danger sign that you might have a problem. "Be careful," he said at the end " Don't ever let it get of hand. "
Needless to say, I never forgot that....up to that point, I never really thought much about how much I or anyone else I knew was drinking, but that chat really made take a hard look at myself. I remember looking at him then, knowing that with the amount of alcohol I'd seen him consume that evening that he should've been falling off the chair, but he looked normal, just sitting there with a smile on his face. Later on, way after The Knack's heyday, Doug took the advice he'd given to me by sobering himself up for good and reaching out to other rockers that had dependancy issues. Aside from the cancer that killed him, he'd been living clean and healthy for over 25 years. I ran into him off and on during the late 80s and 90s, seeing him for the last time round 2002. He came into the bookshop I was working at and we had a brief chat and well, there ya go. When I heard that he had cancer I worried that it would take his life....dammit I hate being right sometimes.
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